Lincoln on Democracy

"You WILL NOT FIND THATTO BE AN OBSTACLE"

308 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecratewe can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. November 19. 1863. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "You WILL NOT FIND THAT TO BE AN OBSTACLE" Informal Remarks to a Lieutenant, the White House [186 3?] This story appeared in an 1866 volume by Frank Moore, Anecdotes, Poetry, and Incidents of the War. Years earlier, and in a far less jocular mood, Lincoln hadplaced old Senate rival Stephen A. Douglas on the side of "the divine right of kings," declaring himself, on the other hand, aligned with "the common right of humanity. " On another occasion, he equated slavery with a tolerance for royal despotism. "It is the same spirit, " he put it, even when it comes "from the mouth ofa king who seeks to bestride the people of his nation and live by the fruits of their labor." Lincoln and Democracy, 1863-1865 309 [A lieutenant, whom debts compelled to leave his fatherland and service, succeeded in being admitted to the late President Lincoln, and, by reason of his commendable and winning deportment and intelligent appearance, was promised a lieutenant's commission in a cavalry regiment . He was so enraptured with his success, that he deemed it a duty to inform the President that he belonged to one of the oldest noble houses in Germany.] "0, never mind that," said Mr. Lincoln; "you will not find that to be an obstacle to your advancement." "THE NEW RECKONING" From the Annual Message to Congress [DECEMBER 8, 1863] Lincoln devoted part ofhis third annual message to Congress to detailing the progress his administration had made toward ending slavery. He seemed particularly proud that even among border states like Maryland, hitherto rigidly opposed even to restraining "the extension ofslavery, " the only dispute now centered on "the best mode of removing" slavery altogether . In the sections that follow, Lincoln reiterated that he would never renege on the Emancipation Proclamation; proposed that an oath to obey the proclamation be included in any plan to re-admit rebel states into the Union; defended the use offreed blacks in the Union armed forces; and argued that military force was still needed to restore democracy. One Southern newspaper reacted by branding Lincoln a "Yankee monster of inhumanity andfalsehood, " but the President's private secretary reported that the message was ecstatically received in Congress, where "men acted as if the millennium had come." Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, full one hundred thousand are now in the United States military service, about one-half of which number actually bear arms in the ranks; thus giving . the double advantage oftaking so much labor from the insurgent cause, ...